Skirt.

To sit upon one’s skirt. To insult, or seek occasion of quarrel. Tarlton, the clown, told his audience the reason why he wore a jacket was that “no one might sit upon his skirt.” Sitting on one’s skirt is, like stamping on one’s coat in Ireland, a fruitful source of quarrels, often provoked.

“Crosse me not, Liza, nether be so perte,

For if thou dost, Iʹll sit upon thy skirte.”

The Abortive of an Idle Howre (1620).

(Quoted by Halliwell: Archoic Words.)

· ·

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.